Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Newest Seal: Terry Mermer

On Sunday, the Seals released Trevor Davidson and signed outfielder and first baseman Terry Mermer. Davidson had been locked in a fight for playing time in center field with Chris VanRossum, but Davidson's release means that VanRossum's job is safe for now.

Mermer is a 25-year-old slugger who was released by the Calgary Vipers on June 8th. He was hitting .256 with 1 homer and 8 RBIs in 10 games. He also struck out 13 times in 39 at-bats. Mermer is in his second year of professional baseball after having played for Orange County last season. He hit .235 with 5 homers and 15 RBIs in only 51 at-bats. Projected out onto a full season, his 21 strikeouts in those 51 at-bats would even make Rob Deer blush.

Mermer played baseball for the Cal State San Bernardino Coyotes, a Division II team (Trevor Davidson played Division III baseball). He obviously has a lot of power when he does make contact and it appears that he may share playing time in RF with Sergio Pedroza or act as a pinch hitter in key late-game situations. Mermer got his first start of the season on Monday afternoon and he went 1-for-4 with a two-run homer.

Seal Blubber Bits
  • Josh Arhart, Javier Garcia, Isaac Hess, Jamar Hill and Wilver Perez will represent the Seals at the Golden Baseball League All Star Game on July 14th in St George, Utah. Details are here.
  • Carlos Duncan was replaced by Pedro Montero at 3B on Monday after Duncan committed his 10th and 11th errors of the season on Sunday. Montero went 2-for-4 with a run scored and raised his average to .140.
  • The first half of the season officially ended on Monday. The Calgary Vipers and St George Roadrunners clinched playoff spots by winning their respective divisions.
  • The Seals finished the first half with a 17-24 record, finishing 9 games back of the Vipers, 6 games back of the Edmonton Capitals and 4 games back of the Chico Outlaws. If the Vipers win the second half, then the team with the best combined record in the North Division will face them in the first round of the playoffs.
  • If you take away the disastrous 1-7 road trip to start the season, Victoria was 16-17 the rest of the way.